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Palestinians warn statehood failure could cause West Bank lockdown

A sticker bearing the slogan "State of Palestine", part of a campaign to support the Palestinian UN bid for statehood, is seen on barbed wire at the Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah on Thursday. (MARCO LONGARI / AFP)

WASHINGTON—The international furor over Palestinian statehood intensified Thursday with a new Palestinian warning that failure to win recognition at the United Nations could trigger the total collapse of governance in the occupied West Bank.

The high-risk brinksmanship, expected to climax Friday with a formal statehood request despite a U.S. vow to veto, raised the prospect of Israel being forced to fill an ominous power vacuum on its doorstep if the Palestinian Authority resolves to abandon the status quo of limited self-rule.

With efforts to resume peace negotiations at an impasse, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was readying for a crucial address to the UN General Assembly, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also expected to plead his case Friday for face-to-face talks in lieu of statehood.

But a top Palestinian official said the delegation, facing the prospect of failure amid U.S. and Israeli efforts to block the bid in the UN Security Council, would question its very existence if it returns empty-handed.

“Handing the keys to the Israeli side has become a very realistic option. We can’t keep the PA without real power,” said Azzam Ahmed, a senior aide to Abbas.

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Created as part of the Oslo peace process in the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority’s role has long been the subject of deep and bitter Palestinian debate. Were the authority to disband, Israel would be directly responsible for the welfare and policing of the estimated 2.5 million stateless Palestinians living on land it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been vocal within the internal Palestinian debate, warning that a failed statehood drive could result in a virtual lockdown of the West Bank by Israeli forces bracing for renewed violence.

“Fayyad’s biggest worry is what happens the day after the UN vote, when the Palestinians wake up and discover the little bit of freedom they have enjoyed in recent years is gone, replaced by new Israeli checkpoints?” a highly placed source in Washington privy to Palestinian discussions told the Star.

“What is the point of the PA when Palestinians realize, ‘Oh my God, who are these schmucks we elected?’ Those are Fayyad’s own words. He actually said ‘schmucks.’ ”

The war over statehood has already given Israel and the U.S. a diplomatic bruising, as international leaders gathered at UN headquarters in New York take turns at the General Assembly rostrum expressing frustration over the protracted conflict.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a country once seen as a staunch Israeli ally, on Thursday vowed “unconditional” support for the Palestinian bid.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, sparked the walkout of the U.S. and some 30 other delegations with the latest in what has become an annual screed against Western domination.

Describing 9/11 as a “mysterious” attack, Ahmadinejad laid a laundry list of global suffering at the feet of Washington and its NATO allies.

“It is as lucid as daylight that the same slave masters and colonial powers that instigated the two world wars have caused widespread misery and disorder with far-reaching effects across the globe since then,” he railed.

Such outbursts are unlikely to carry any weight ahead of Friday’s deliberations. But the overall mood remained uncertain and tense.

“This is a very scary moment,” said Steven Krubiner of J-Street, a Washington-based lobby group that calls for a two-state solution.

“Time is not on Israel’s side here, especially in light of the Arab Spring. The only way forward is for the U.S. and Israel to show there is a diplomatic horizon worth pursuing.”

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